We are Anthony and JoEllen Stancil.We have raised 3 sons, Chris (29), Austin (25) and Cale (22). We also had a daughter, Ashley Nichole, that we miscarried 1985, she would have been 26 this year. We have felt for quite some time that we were missing a couple of children along the way and that we were not finished with parenting little ones. Please join us on our journey bring home our princesses.

Friday, May 9, 2014

I'm back! I can't believe how long it's been since I last posted. Where to begin? Job losses, jobs found, health issues...

We've been around the bend, that's for sure. Tony had a time of it finding work after he was laid off July of 2012. He found a couple of jobs, and then lost them. We were blessed in March 12-19, 2013 with a trip to Tampa to visit our son Austin and his girlfriend. We had a great time and miss them terribly. I started working for Comfort Keepers and Tony got a job shortly after that and we've both been working steadily until last November when I tripped at work and injured my knee. I've been out of work since December 6th.

Then I had the opportunity last year, 2013, to help my mom and dad while my mom was recuperating from surgery. Kept dad company while mom was in the hospital and helping them get ready for her to come home.

I've been keeping busy, as you can see. But what I haven't touched on is what I've been thinking this whole time about our adoption, or lack thereof.

I guess it hit me pretty hard about a year ago that things keep getting stonewalled, we take a step forward and end up stepping back three feet, and it makes me wonder what's going on. I, at that point, had to pray and let the girls go. No not entirely, if the opportunity presented/presents itself for us to attempt to move forward again we'd pick up where we left off, but realistically, we don't see that happening. And that hurts, A LOT! We will always think of them as our daughters, Hannah and Grace (Sandra and Slavka), they are to this day in our prayers, that they find a loving home and are cherished as much as we would have.

I often look back over the past five years and wonder 'what the heck, why, Lord, did we go through all of this? Why'd we leave Louisville? Why do I have a heart to adopt children with special needs if you aren't allowing us to adopt? And then I look around at what we've been doing and what we've been through and I get it. We apparently came back because we were needed here, and I couldn't have done what I needed to do here if I had adopted the twins. God Knows, we don't...

So, I guess we'll continue this journey after things settle down a little with family health...in the meantime, I'll spend my time advocating for my friends that adopt or want to adopt children with special needs...if you know someone, let me know!